Awards Honor 2 Delray `Educators Of The Century'

Carl Wesley and Clayton Coleman, who taught Delray Beach children for more than three decades each, on Monday won Educator of the Century awards.

"I'm excited, but I'm mostly grateful that my peers would honor me in this way," said Wesley, 62, Carver Middle School's first and only band director.

Wesley still teaches. Coleman, 81, retired in 1981, after 34 years at Carver High School and S.D. Spady Elementary.

"I'm overjoyed and elated. It's a good feeling to be glad you were able to do something," she said.

Neither winner said more than a quiet "thank you" after they were honored at an an Old School Square luncheon sponsored by the Sun-Sentinel and SunTrust Bank. The award consisted of a plaque and $1,000. But Wesley's students had plently to say to him after he returned to Carver Middle School, ready to continue teaching. "He's the best," said Donovan Clark, 13, an aspiring tenor saxophonist. "He made me love the saxophone, and he's nice."

"Just to know that the winner is our teacher," said Thomas Colon, 13, when he heard the news. "He's deserves it. He knows his stuff, and he's a great teacher."

Wesley and Coleman were recognized because of their lifelong commitments to teaching.

"They both contributed to education over time. It wasn't just one particular thing they did," said Carol Rubin, who was on the nominating committee. "Mr. Wesley teaches a non-traditional subject that's not reading, writing or arithmetic. He's involved in the arts, where a kid who may not be a very good student can overcome that and succeed as a musician. And Dr. Coleman just continues to give, working as a tutor for at-risk kids. At a point in her life when she could just say, `Forget it, you deal with it,' she continues to teach."

Ruth Pompey, who was in Coleman's first homeroom class in 1937, said Coleman was "very deserving. She was a mentor for many, many kids. She's been a real source of inspiration to me."

Coleman came to Delray Beach in 1937 and served as teacher, department head and principal at Carver High School and later S.D. Spady Elementary, where she helped students and staff weather integration. She retired in 1981. Today, Coleman teaches a Sunday School class at St. Paul AME Church and tutors students in the Save the Children program at Pompey Park each Saturday morning.

Wesley, a teacher for 38 years, including 25 at Carver Middle, said he appreciates the recognition, but the award has a deeper meaning. "It proves that education is a noble profession," he said.